With Early Years Mark Making a very real issue, we have
decided to put together an information pack to help guide
you and your child through the processes they may
encounter whilst with us at Addingham Preschool Playgroup.
We have worked very closely with the staff in Class
Reception and feel that you will benefit from the
information enclosed in this document.
The purpose of this information is to make you aware of the
importance of the stages your child will pass through
before ‘recognisable writing’ will emerge and how vital it is
that your child is not rushed through the process.
Early mark making is a personal journey that each child
passes through at their own speed and time. Each stage is
vital to their overall skill; the main aim at this early stage is
to encourage all the motor skills/movements required for
efficient mark making. The key area being to encourage a
good pencil grip/hold, this is also explained in this booklet
along with pictures of a variety of pencil holds you may
encounter whilst your child is working out how to manipulate
a pencil to make marks.
We sincerely hope that you will find this guidance beneficial
and if you have any further questions please ask a member
of staff for any extra help or clarification you may require.
Throughout your child’s early years is it essential that they
be given the opportunity to make a wide variety of marks
using a wide variety of media...
A tray with a small amount of dry or wet sand can fire the
imagination, creating straight lines, curves, zigzags or
circles using just a finger or thumb. A variety of implements
can be added; brushes, cars with a variety of tyre treads,
bevelled/ patterned rolling pins add a new dimension to the
marks being made. (It doesn’t have to be sand... flour, icing
sugar, shaving foam are all good for early mark making)
The use of paint does not necessarily require a paint brush,
making marks with hands and then fingers shows your child
how a mark can change just by modifying something at a
basic level. This is the same when a mark making implement
is introduced.
Likewise painting does not require the use of paint; paint
brushes and water are great fun for large mark making
outside on floors and walls.
Writing Development
Early writing begins from the moment babies make their first
marks. These are more likely to involve the children making patterns
in their food, or possibly discovering that foods such as jam and
melted chocolate can make interesting marks on their body or other
available surface!
Supporting Early Mark Making
The following is a series of early mark making steps that all children
will travel through. They will travel through all/ some of these at
their own pace and guidance and support from the adult is key to
this journey. This journey will start from muscle development in
baby stage to hopefully refining pencil grip and early mark making
by age 5. The best and most vital help you can give your child is a
good refined tripod pencil grip. This is key to refining marks and
early letter forming.
If letter forming begins prior to a refined pencil grip, the skill has
to be un- learned and re learned in order for efficient mark making
skills to occur which the child will need as he/ she continues
through school.
The following is what we consider to be a good refined tripod pencil
grip.
Pencil held lightly between thumb and index finger, with middle
finger lightly supporting and tucked behind the pencil.
From Birth to approx. 26 months your child will be developing a
range of movement that is essential for later mark making:
The adult needs to...
- Encourage exploring, crawling, rolling and wriggling.
- Join in with actions and movements.
- Show interest in marks and patterns.
- Provide toys that can be easily held by small hands.
- Appreciate marks made and praise the childs efforts.
- Imitate/ copy the marks the child makes.
- Let the child see you make marks.
- Provide a range of small movement activities.
- Provide a range of mark making activities.
From 22-36 months...
The adult needs to...
- Point out the child’s name and draw attention to other print
in the environment.
- Show interest in the child’s mark making, supported by
appreciative and encouraging comments.
- Play with the child imitating their marks and modelling
other ways of making marks.
From 30-50 months...
The adult needs to...
- Model writing and read it back to the child.
- Show how to use a variety of writing materials.
- Talk about what you have both written and drawn.
- Let the child see you writing for a purpose, such as memos,
labels, messages and so on.
- Show interest in all mark making attempts.
- Demonstrate that speech can be recorded in a written
form by scribing the child’s own caption for a picture or
story.
- Illustrate that writing communicates a message by reading
instructions for games, construction toys, recipes and so
on.
- Write for a purpose; letters, shopping lists, labels and so
on.
- Draw attention to his/ her name and encourage him/ her to
mark their name on pictures.
- Encourage a comfortable and effective writing grip.
- Talk about the difference between pictures and text.
From 40-60 months...
The adult needs to...
- Draw attention to text whilst reading stories,
demonstrating left to right and top to bottom.
- Talk about the way print works, a word then a space.
- Draw attention to the names of other children.
- Once correct pencil grip is established, encourage correct
letter formation.
- Encourage child to talk about their writing and let them
read it to you.
- In shared reading, draw attention to features of text such
as direction and repeated words or refrains; big books are
good for this.
- Identify letters of the child’s name in texts, value the
attempts they make to write their name and compare
similarities and differences to how you would write their
name.
- Write for different purposes and read back where
appropriate.
- Build up sentences of individual words.
- List familiar words.